I’ve been interested in superheroes for a long time, and not only because I think telekinesis would be useful. It’s not the epic struggles, either, though that certainly plays a part too. No, what really intrigues me is that your average superhero story is a fantasy dressed up as science fiction.

As I see it, there are three basic types of superheroes:

The Mutated Hero, who’s undergone a genetic change or five which allow him (or her) to channel superhuman abilities. My pet examples are Spider-Man and the X-Men.

The Not-Of-This-World Hero, whose superpowers are of alien, magical, or divine origin. Think Superman and Thor, and possibly Wonder Woman.

The Technology Hero, who uses advanced technology and science to achieve his (or her) goals. I always think of Iron Man, though Batman and Green Hornet also fit this model.

How scientifically accurate are the sci-fi elements of these heroes? Generally not very, apart from the Technology Hero. What genetic change would allow someone’s limbs to stretch or contort in the blink of an eye, yet retain structural integrity? How can someone control the weather, or magnetism, or another human’s actions, with only their body and mind? Would an alien physiology really enable someone to fly or see through objects? Not to mention the problems with mind readers, size changers, teleporters, and human bodies moving supersonically under their own power. The only way to make powers like these plausible is to call them magic — which ties in nicely with the superhero-as-modern-god analogy.

I identified the Technology Hero as an exception because the weapons he uses are generally believable and often based on real-world science. I’ll admit to not being solid enough on physics to know if Iron Man’s suit would actually be capable of everything it does, but it looks plausible and I’m willing to bet that if we can’t do all that today, we will at some point. We can or are working on just about everything in a Technology Hero’s arsenal, and if we’re not, we’ll be able to mimic the technology at some point. We might not achieve forcefields or invisibility, for instance, but we should be able to overlap energy fields or use nano-engineering to achieve a similar effect.

The other types of heroes, though? I think if we stretch our minds we can come up with origins and powers that wouldn’t defy the laws of physics (or biology, or chemistry, or…). At least we can if we discount anyone who uses mystical or magical powers.

The alien Not-Of-This-World Heroes, though? As I said above, I don’t see the powers Superman and the Martian Manhunter have as being particularly scientifically accurate, even if they can be darn cool all the same. Why would Kryptonians (or Martians) need X-ray vision and laser eye beams on their home world? And why would Superman, who grew up on Earth, retain the full muscle strength of someone raised in Krypton’s higher gravity (or, for the alternate explanation of his strength, why would specific wavelengths of light affect strength)?

However, I do think that aliens could have what we’d call superpowers. Advanced stamina? The ability to withstand starvation, air deprivation, extreme temperatures, or other similarly harsh conditions? An amphibious respiratory system, or one that runs on methane? Acidic blood or saliva? Infrared or UV vision? Faster reflexes? More mental processing power? Even hovering or flight, if the world was right. Any of those (and more) could convey an evolutionary advantage, or become stronger on our planet. What if the alien was used to a different gravity or their metabolism was kicked into overdrive by a common Earth molecule such as chlorophyll? So, supposing there is intelligent life on other planets, I’d rank this kind of superhero as a scientific possibility.

Now we come to the last category, the least realistic after the magical and divine heroes. What Mutated Heroes exhibit are basically magical powers couched in science babble. To their credit, they were by and large created when DNA was a new discovery and not as well understood as it is today, and when the Cold War was causing mutation to become a trope, but still—how does a mutation based on exposure to radiation spread through the body and become active in a matter of days? I can understand adults passing latent mutations to their kids, and mutations occurring within the embryo, but not adult-exposure superpowers. In other words, the X-Men are more realistic than the Fantastic Four.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that the X-Men are believable. They have some of the wildest, least scientifically plausible powers of any superheroes I’ve come across. Manipulation of heat energy, wings, telekinesis, invisibility, metallic skin, psionic armor… The only way I see these being possible is through technology, not through mental manipulation of the environment or what have you. Are we talking new kinds of brain waves that can become almost solid or maintain their strength over great distances? A controllable energy deficit within the body that would allow someone to absorb heat and thereby create ice? I’m racking my mind trying to come up with explanations for Storm, Magneto, and most of their colleagues, and I’m coming up short. This cannot be a good sign.

I think we might achieve “Mutant Hero” powers with judicial application of electronic implants, nanotechnology, and the like, which would turn our superheroes into Technology Heroes (and cyborgs). Can we get the same powers through biology and genetics? I highly doubt it, even when we fully understand how DNA works and can create our own versions of the molecule.

I’d love to see superheroes who fit the Mutant or Alien categories and were scientifically accurate. For that matter, I’d love to see Technology Heroes who were too. (Iron Man might have accurate inventions, but he’s sure not carrying enough power to run them all, even with the arc reactor.) I enjoy the magical aspects of the heroes, absolutely, but why don’t we get more science?

Note about mutated heroes, most people have realized by now that radiation is more likely to give you cancer than superpowers, but genetic engineering is becoming popular (like in the new Spiderman movies)

To the extent that superheroes are realistic, they should occasionally occur in real life. Throughout history, when technologically disparate cultures meet, individuals occasionally have the opportunity to wield weapons vastly more powerful than anything else found in their community, and they could choose to use this advantage to act in the name of vigilante justice. Throughout human evolution, the same sort of thing could happen when individuals find themselves with novel phenotypes. Does this sort of thing actually happen, though? I feel like most of the time, technological or genetic advantages are too small to qualify as superpowers, and new technology under one person’s control is either replicated, stolen, or else useless without extensive infrastructure and refinements. Plus, people with power are usually more interested in exploiting others than in protecting them. In fiction, heroes in primitive societies sometimes owe their superior abilities to realistic technology (e.g. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) or genes (e.g. Clan of the Cave Bear). Are there examples from the real world?

My main criticism of Superheroes has always been need-based powers. The primary venue of superheroes was combat-based comic books, and because of that, 98+% of what we consider “superpowers” are compeltely useless in a normal everyday environment. Sure, looking through walls would be great for a bomb tech or members of the military or police, but the only “superpowers” that the average person would use are impressive memory, technopathy and unassisted flight/empowered movement. Shows like “Heroes” gave us a bit more variation in the abilities, but it was still an action flick. No being able to read fast, increased lingusitic function, control over disease, or spontaneous generation of office supplies.

As for mutant & alien superheroes, I can understand certain liberties being taken. I, for one, am glad the Hulk’s pants stay on. And the bulk of Alien superhero technology could just be explained as “above us” or “out of our understanding”; similar to when asked how Star Trek Internal Dampeners work, the response was “very well, thanks!”. The original Green Lanturn, for example, seems fairly reasonable – the ring holds a charge for only 24 hours, and can only project an energy field in the shape of the wearer’s imagination… although they gimped it against anything yellow, which is an underlying repeatable plot device more than anything scientific. The original Stargate television series did a fine job of showing how advanced technology could be used as pseudo-superpowers to rule over various peoples of various levels of development.

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